Roland Fantom - Exploring Step-Recording

An impromptu exploration of the Fantom's step-recording feature.
THE RULES:
1. Discussion is encouraged, but please stay on-topic: If the video is about a particular feature of a device ... discuss that feature, not some other feature you don't like. Off-topic posts may be deleted without notice or recourse, at my sole discretion.
2. Critical, thoughtful commentary is also encouraged. It doesn't have to be all "happy talk" Bickering and overtly hostile posting will be dealt with quickly ... the delete button and ban-hammer are used when necessary.
3. This is an amateur effort. Keep that in mind. Comments about how I should have done something differently are not helpful. If you want to show me how to do it better, please link to YOUR videos where you do so.

[@francoisparadis5184]

That is one of the things that I love the most about the fantom series. The ability to do almost anything a few different ways.

[@paulmcmc4005]

Thank you so much for your time and effort in making these videos! Very much appreciated as I know how much it takes with regards to your time to make and upload!! I've just bought the Fantom 8 and what a keyboard it is. These instructional videos are helping me make headway more than anyone else on KZbin. Cheers:-)

[@artisanjourney5050]

Excellent tutorial... as a new fantom owner i was struggling big time !!! You solved all of my issues... hands down the best tutorial on fantom recording on youtube period!

[@Ziyoblader]

18:00 holy buckets that's amazing it sounds like those old neat computer hardware commercials on TV in the early late 80s early 90s

[@yanisleyd]

Thank you so much for this clear explanation. Everyone shows the capabilities of the keyboard without a step by step guide of what it really looks like to record music. Appreciate all of your efforts! Cheers 😊

[@khawk2012]

The explanation is very clear. Because you are exploring as you go along explaining it makes more sense.. It's not a guided step by step and don't look down or you'll fall kind of tutorial.. keep up the work!

[@FugaziSB]

Pure gold! Lots of useful information for starters like me, thank you Sir!

[@TRPJ24]

Thank you for this, and the other one. Highly appreciated.

[@Somanybeats]

Awesome video! Thank you for this. Learned something new. Man I love the Fantom.. Its so cool!

[@pgtips4240]

Your teaching is soooooo good! It's by far the most clear and thorough I have found on youtube. If there was one wee small thing that imo could improve it would the video stepped up to 4k. It's not that the 1080p is poor quality, it's not but on my mobile screen the labels and text is very small and 4k would just add that crispness to the text for small screens. But this is just a small thing and doesn't take away from the fact your video is 1st class, so informative and easy to follow. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and help others. Take care. 🙂

[@chrisbran6739]

Hello, a great job with the sequencer, the ZEN-Core engine sounds really dynamic and powerful.

[@FitmitFlo]

Thank you for the tutorial. Without your videos I would be lost with my new Phantom 08

[@JBCreatieve]

very learnfully, thank very much for sharing this information. helps a lot .👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@davidpaschal6963]

Thank you very much Sir.

[@markusfuller]

Nice tutorial. looking forward to your next video.

[@ZTAudio]

I’ve followed your channel for years ... getting a big kick out of seeing you comment!

[@markusfuller]

ZT Audio wow Thank you very much appreciated. I have subscribed :-)

[@alexanderknake4333]

Nice Tutorial too!

[@vinnykeys8146]

Thanks for a great demonstration. Is there a way to copy that A pattern (4 to the floor) to a PAD. So I can play it at anytime from any sound easily? If you did a video on this already, please direct me. Thanks so much

[@keekeefries6298]

Awesome content thank you! 🙂

[@MrNimmy77]

Is it possible to achieve a "swing feel" for Jazz or Boogie using step mode?

[@christianthompson1473]

Also, a major omission is multiple select for pattern and modify delete... its very easy to create a lot of unwanted patterns and deleting them individually is ridiculously slow and laborious.

[@ZTAudio]

Yeah ... I'd like at least the ability to have "Delete Row" and "Delete Column" functions.

[@thomrowlands3233]

This is great thank you. I've had my Fantom for a week and still getting head round all the features. One tiny thing - you said (or implied) that you can't add chords in TR-rec mode. I think I've discovered that you can. If you hold the chord down, then press the relevant step button, it adds the full chord! 🎉 Anyway thanks again

[@ZTAudio]

Thom Rowlands Cool! I’ll try that!

[@ZTAudio]

Shout out to you ... your tip is included in the video I am making today.

[@SunlightOfTheSpirit]

Dude, if you want to expand that fantastic arp sound from one to two bars in the mode that you are in, how’d ya do it quickly? It seems like you can’t and this is surely something that is needed to build long patterns with variation in the fly.

[@burydudexxx]

Subscribed - thanks for this - keep 'em coming :-)

[@jrf1962]

Can you make a video how to create a complete style (ballad, rock or pop) and vocals. Can you sing along your song through the Fantom?

[@barnieri619]

can you demonstrate the ties/unties? having trouble figuring that out. potential bug: unable to delete the second note of the tie.

[@danielvandevoorde2980]

Hey i bought my fantom 8 just yesterday but i am used to play with the sequencer from the Fantom G how do i create a song with different verses and chords ? And just play it in church?

[@JBCreatieve]

i wondering if you can made jupitor xm ,jupiter edge scene (vangelis arpeggio ) can made with steprecording ,

[@TeleporterM11]

Please do a video on Tie and Unite.

[@djjas764]

Cool. How about drum kit editing video and applying effects on individual parts of a drum kit for example effect on a snare ( reverb ), clap, Hi Hats etc. Would be great if you can make one :-)

[@DaveBorrell]

For those who want to know. If you want more than 1 bar the answer is keep adding notes and the next measure will automatically appear.

[@MO-wh2ot]

"write the scene" !!!! got it ;)

[@freeserver22]

Hello, are you still making videos? If so could you make some for beginners. I haven’t owned any Roland products for years. I used to have an mc505, sp808 and jp8080 to name a few. So I’ve been out of the game for 20 years. Just bought the fantom 8 and the instructions are a joke to be honest. It would be great if you could do some beginner videos for dummies like me 🤣 if not which video on your channel would be the best to start with? I’m man enough to admit that I need help. Your videos on step rec and tr rec were very helpful, so thanks for that.

[@johndude70]

Mine does nothing when I put the usb stick into the second USB port, Im stuck, what can I do? What disk format does the fantom use?

[@fraxis2007]

One thing I can’t seem to find detailed information on before I commit to buying this is sequencer time signatures. Is it still limited to 4/4 and 3/4? If I wanted to do something a bit more experimental or ‘Prog’, can I change the number of, say, 16 note steps to get a pattern that repeats every 5, 7 or 9th note, or am I limited to just the number of bars for the ‘length’ parameter? And are polyrhythms possible by having one track play in 3/4 whilst another is in 4/4?

[@ilungamasan]

"Is it still limited to 4/4 and 3/4?" permissible settings: 1-32 / 2, 4, 8, 16

[@ilungamasan]

"are polyrhythms possible by having one track play in 3/4 whilst another is in 4/4?" - no

[@lelemartelli]

Nice tutorial, but i have a question: Is It possible to record the rhythm pattern into sequencer? Intro, Verse, Fill and Ending? Thanks

[@ZTAudio]

You can ... and it integrates surprisingly well with the pattern-based sequencer approach. I'll need to do a video on this.

[@ZTAudio]

Shout out to you ... I am showing how to use the Rhythm-Pattern, feature combine with pattern recording, in the video I am making today.

[@lelemartelli]

@@ZTAudio Thank you very much, you are great. You use the Rhythm-Pattern in the pads and then in the pattern recording, now I understood. Excellent. It was easy :-) When I have any doubt, I write you. Thank you again

[@stryker1999]

Boy... you have a big playlist. ;D But this is a great start. Tutorials on such a deep and great workstation is a fantastic way to begin your KZbin career. Also, FIRST! ;P

[@ZTAudio]

It's actually not my first rodeo on KZbin. I used to have a very popular channel on a completely different subject. I agree though ... pretty sparse list of vids for now on this one.

[@marctronixx]

ZT Audio you for sure are filling a void that is needed right now with people like me who purchased this instrument and with zero experience in the Fantom universe. It really helps to see these functions executed in an actual scenario . I for one thank you for getting straight to brass tacks!

[@jr6786]

It really does take a little trial and error to figure out the ui.

[@nikklnirlu9062]

Jupiter 80 is good or fantom 6

[@gerardjayetileke4373]

New to the roland fantom. Is there a way to change the time signature for a beat in tr-rec or step recording?

[@ZTAudio]

Currently we are limited to 4/4 and 3/4 time signatures, but yes.

[@gerardjayetileke4373]

@@ZTAudio Yep realized this last night. It's a bit of a stretch with the tempo, but 4/4 and 3/4 can be used for pretty much all signatures. Thank you :)

[@markquavertune2003]

Thank you .Can a stylus pen be used instead of finger touch ?

[@ZTAudio]

Mark QUAVERTUNE it seems to work for me.

[@markquavertune2003]

@@ZTAudio Thank you . I have seen some negative comments . However this instrument will suit me and I like what I see so far .Still early days for the fantom and no doubt there will be implemented improvements in the future .

[@kelvinperez8845]

In real time is better but you do a great tutorial.

[@thomascook2535]

You are doing really good videos. Kindly spare sometime and upload more...............

[@ZTAudio]

More stuff is on the way ... and not just videos about the Fantom.

[@thomascook2535]

@@ZTAudio That's cool. At the moment Fantom is my focus, but others are welcome as well.

[@joesdayjob]

NO tutorials on how to save my patterns ? the usb saves are making me load each track individually and its deleting track 1 the I try to load track 2 ...

[@ZTAudio]

Please read the rules in the description. Please stay on-topic.

[@christianthompson1473]

Have you mentioned yet, althiugh most things are saved in a scene, TONE is not saved in a scene? So if you edit the tone you must FIRST save the tone and THEN save the scene....

[@ZTAudio]

Yeah, that's pretty common w/ workstations. The workaround on the Fantom is that you can use Scene-dependent "offsets" for common parameters like Cutoff, Resonance, Attack, Decay, etc. In practice, this works pretty well, although it's a bit fiddly to work with.

[@christianthompson1473]

@@ZTAudio ... in the zone menu i guess ? But saving the tone before scene is not any big deal... just need to be aware of it really.

[@XPJV]

I think lots of power is when you able to lay the entire idea on the single track. Instead of tons of parts and separate sequences.

[@ZTAudio]

It's pretty much possible to do that ... you can split the keyboard as many ways as you want (for both internal sounds and external MIDI-controlled instruments) and record multiple tracks/zones in one pass. The one limitation is that a pattern is presently limited to a length of 32 bars. That really needs to be increased to at least 128 bars, and probably 256 just to be sure.

[@XPJV]

This keyboard lacks standard sequencer which is in G, X, & XP versions.

[@ZTAudio]

@@XPJV Yes, I am aware of how Roland has implemented the MC-50-type of linear sequencer across their range of workstations for decades. This new sequencer is a departure from that approach.

[@XPJV]

@@ZTAudio, in other words you agreed with my question, but you answered me in the Roland's favor because Roland is paying you...

[@ZTAudio]

@@XPJV You have no idea what you are talking about. I get paid nothing by Roland or any other vendor.I said nothing in anyone's "favor" one way or the other. I simply noted the differences. Don't pick fights, or make baseless accusations.

[@cfloratos]

Responsiveness of the touch screen seems problematic...

[@ZTAudio]

Not sure why you'd think that. It's far more responsive than a Korg Krome or Yamaha Montage. There are probably parts of this video where I am imprecise, owing to monitoring (video) and recording/presenting at the same time.

[@cfloratos]

@@ZTAudio Since you say it I respect it. But the way it seems on the video is like a hit 'n miss procedure... I don't agree though with Montage because I own it and I've never had any issues.

[@ZTAudio]

@@cfloratos You'll need to try it. I don't think there is anything "wrong" with the Montage. However, the Fantom approaches almost iPhone/iPad level of responsiveness. You can even effectively "flip scroll" through some of the menus.